Luzhkov's Powerful Deputy Caught in Corruption Probe

By Nabi Abdullaev and Alexander Bratersky

Federal investigators announced Tuesday that they were investigating Mayor Yury Luzhkov's powerful deputy Alexander Ryabinin on suspicion of corruption.

Ryabinin heads City Hall's Control Committee, which authorizes construction permits and land sales, and he oversees procurements and investment for the city administration.

Ryabinin is the most senior Moscow official to have been targeted by investigators since Luzhkov took the reins of the city in 1992, and political analysts said the case appeared to be an attempt by the Kremlin to unseat the mayor.

An Investigative Committee spokesman told The Moscow Times that the criminal case was opened against Ryabinin on suspicion of abuse of office Monday. Ryabinin remains free, and his legal status is that of a suspect, the spokesman said, declining further comment.

According to a statement posted on the committee's web site, Ryabinin is accused of pressuring an unidentified Moscow businessman into handing over a nonresidential property to Ryabinin's daughter. Ryabinin is suspected of threatening to block the approval of a construction project that the businessman had filed with his Control Committee, the statement said. Sale papers for the property covering more than 200 square meters in a building in central Moscow were forged, and no money was paid to the businessman, it said.

Ryabinin, 50, joined City Hall in 2005 and was appointed deputy mayor two years later. He also served on an anti-corruption commission created by Luzhkov in 2008. In June, Ryabinin was also appointed to head Moskomsintez, a company established by City Hall to buy land from developers for the city's needs.

“He has played a major role in the distribution of land plots in Moscow,” said Sergei Mitrokhin, head of the Yabloko party and a former Moscow City Duma deputy.

If charged and convicted of abuse of office, Ryabinin faces up to three years in prison.

City Hall's press service could not be reached for comment on the investigation Tuesday evening.

Luzhkov, 73, has been hit by a string of scandals over the past year, including several orchestrated by the federal government.

Last June, law enforcement officials used smuggling charges to close Europe's largest retail market, Cherkizovsky, controlled by businessman Telman Ismailov, who is believed to be close to Luzhkov.

Two months later, the head of City Hall's Advertising Committee, Vladimir Makarov, was charged with abuse of office and placed in detention for several weeks. The case against him is ongoing.

Before Ryabinin, Makarov was the highest-ranking City Hall official to come under investigation.

In October, Interior Ministry investigators conducted searches in City Hall's housing department in a fraud case.

Then President Dmitry Medvedev — apparently taking aim at Luzhkov and other veteran governors who have established authoritarian regimes in their regions — said late last year that he would not allow the governors to stay past three terms in office.

The Kremlin had no immediate comment about the investigation late Tuesday.

The crackdown against Ryabinin appears to be aimed against Luzhkov, but the mayor is extremely resilient politically and would survive this blow easily, said Stanislav Belkovsky, an independent political analyst.

Luzhkov — who doesn't belong to the current group of decision-makers brought to power by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and who mounted a strong challenge to the Kremlin in 1999 — has received such signals for years but always managed to retain his grip on power, Belkovsky said.

Tatyana Stanovaya, an analyst with the Center for Political Technologies, said the Kremlin has decided that Luzhkov must leave, and negotiations were going on between him and the federal authorities on the terms of his departure.

The case against Ryabinin could represent a public manifestation in the struggle between the mayor and a Kremlin faction seeking his departure, she said.

The Moscow Times

French children of Wehrmacht soldiers seek German nationality

Their mothers were French, their fathers were German soldiers in Nazi-occupied France. Some 200,000 children endured scorn and often hid their father’s identity. Now some have begun applying for German citizenship

More than 200,000 children fathered by German soldiers were raised by their French mothers after the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, according to Paris historian Fabrice Vergili. The author of the book “Naître ennemi” (Born an Enemy) also estimates that 20,000 French women were hounded through streets and brutally given short haircuts by their French compatriots, who accused them of “horizontal collaboration” with the Nazis.

Many of these "war children" grew up not knowing their full identities and ashamed of their German roots, until recently. Since 2009 dozens have sought and obtained German nationality without having to relinquish their French citizenship, as is generally required of resident foreigners under German law.

Mijo Panier, fathered by a Wehrmacht soldier and born in 1943, recently applied for German citizenship. “I am proud to be German and French, proud of my dual nationality. I will use one and then the other,” she said.

The liaison that started with a sneeze powder prank

Not until she turned 16 did Panier learn that her father had been German. Her French step-father, who accepted her as his own child, forbade her to talk about her origins. Her biological parents met in a Paris cafe during the four-year occupation.

"My mother went into a cafe where young French and Germans met one another, but as groups kept apart," Panier said. "My mother and her friend scattered sneeze powder under the chairs of the German soldiers.” Her father was amused and moved over to sit with the girls at their table. That was the start of a forbidden liaison.

After a search that lasted for decades, she found her father, Willi Welsch, five years ago with the assistance of a Berlin-based organization. Welsch and his daughter Mijo exchanged letters before finally meeting near Frankfurt.

Tender encounter near Frankfurt

Welsch was seriously ill and had been in hospital. “To me he was unbelievably nice. He had blue eyes and despite his illness he drew me into the train. I sat down next to him and there we remained silent for a long time. Then we exchanged a few words in English, German and French”.

With tears in her eyes, Panier adds, "It was as though I had found my second half".

Welsch died a few months later, but since then Panier has fostered intense contacts with her recently-discovered family in Germany. There is a photo of her paternal sister in her French living room.

Months ago she sent a letter to the German embassy – in German. “I was a child of shame. In the end, however, I am a child of love,” she wrote. Although Panier now speaks openly about her father's origins her mother still does not want to talk about it.

Shrugging off shame prompts search for family roots

The urge to free themselves from shame motivates many of France's "war children" to apply officially for their German nationality.

The surge began after a broadcast on French television in 2003. Many former war children then contacted the Paris historian Virgili and went on to set up groups such as the National Friendship Association for War Children to help each other to trace their roots. Their wartime experiences soon became a talking point in France.

Hewige Roberval sent her application to the German embassy shortly before her marriage. "Not long before my wedding I told my fiance about my father. I was really scared that he might no longer want to marry me. Fortunately, he only laughed about it."

Panier says that if her application for German citzenship is granted, she plans to officially adopt her deceased father's family name. It is already on her letter box.

Author: Ruth Reichstein (ipj)

Editor: Ben Knight

Deutsche Welle

Marin boy's injury puts focus on metal bats

Carolyn Jones

A day after he was hit in the head with a baseball, Gunnar Sandberg was in the hospital, shaking hands with nurses, visiting with friends and joyfully cracking his knuckles.

But Monday, the gregarious 16-year-old high school baseball player from Kentfield was clinging to life, and his school, Marin Catholic, was rethinking the use of metal baseball bats.

The school's baseball team switched from metal bats to wooden bats as a safety measure in Gunnar's honor after the March 11 practice game against De La Salle when a batter slammed a line drive into Gunnar's left temple. Gunnar, who usually plays second base, was on a temporary stint at pitcher when he was struck.

Players tend to hit harder with metal bats, which are lighter, and some coaches and parents argue that they've led to an increase in injuries. North Dakota and New York City have banned metal bats in youth baseball.

Gunnar was struck by a ball that was traveling at least 100 mph. He immediately collapsed on the pitching mound, tried to stand up, then fell again. He was transported to nearby Marin General Hospital, where he remained conscious for the next day or so, as he underwent brain scans and talked to family and friends, according to his sister, Kalli Sandberg.

Late March 12 his conditioned worsened, however, as his head began to swell and his movements slowed.

"He looked like a baby in a teenager's body," his sister wrote on a Web site. "His pupils were huge and unresponsive. ... It was so hard to see my little brother like this".

Doctors operated on his brain that night to alleviate the pressure and placed him in a chemical-induced coma.

On Thursday doctors stopped the chemicals, began another round of scans and are now awaiting his response.

His condition was described by his uncle, Chip Block, as "day to day, minute by minute".

Although family and friends are optimistic, the outlook is precarious, those familiar with the case said.

"They haven't gotten the signals from him they were hoping for," said Marin Catholic spokeswoman Becket Colombo. "But everyone's hopeful. Miracles happen".

More than 500 people attended a candlelight vigil for Gunnar on Sunday night at Creekside Park across from the hospital and adjacent to the high school.

Marin Catholic hosted a Mass in Gunnar's honor Monday, and students are wearing school colors, blue and white, today as a tribute.

"The mood here is hopeful, but very somber," Colombo said.

At a game last week, both Marin Catholic and Drake High School used wooden bats, and Marin Catholic plans to address the wooden-versus-metal bat issue on a game-by-game basis.

Opposed to bat ban

Little League, the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the American Baseball Coaches Association are opposed to banning metal bats, saying the injury rate is not discernibly different than from wooden bats.

Metal bats have been in use since the 1920s, as a cost-effective solution to wooden bats occasionally snapping during games. By the 1970s they were in widespread use in high schools, and today they're used in nearly all youth baseball.

The North Coast Section, the umbrella group overseeing high school sports in much of the Bay Area, including Marin Catholic, follows national high school guidelines regulating bat safety, said commissioner Gil Lemmon.

Two studies have shown that balls hit by metal bats travel 4 mph faster than those hit by wooden bats, he said.

As far as he knows, Marin Catholic was in compliance with all safety regulations the day of the game, he said. Gunnar was not wearing a helmet, but pitchers are not required to do so, he said.

Playing since age 5

Gunnar has been playing baseball since he was 5, and is devoted to the sport, his uncle, Chip Block, said Monday.

Gunnar coaches youth baseball at St. Patrick's School in Larkspur and mentors dozens of kids on an informal basis, he said.

"He's a very giving, very funny, extremely sensitive, nice young man," Block said. "He's never said a bad word about anyone".

His family is enduring a roller coaster of tears, anger and hope, Block said.

"I tell Gunnar every day, my son wants to be just like him, so he can't go anywhere," Block said. "We need him to stick around. My kids love him too much".

The San Francisco Chronicle

Remove flaws in implementation of schemes, says Manmohan

Chairing the meeting of the full Planning Commission for mid-term appraisal of the Eleventh Plan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pointed out that the exercise not only presents a report card of the government's achievements but also “gives us an idea of how far we have been able to meet our stated objective of faster and more inclusive growth”.

The mid-term appraisal (MTA), Dr. Singh said, has brought out deficiencies in the implementation of schemes, and these need to be removed. “Our focus must shift from making demand for more resources to expand schemes to undertaking serious review of their effectiveness in improving the implementation on the ground,” he said.

Dwelling on the broad picture of the economy while entrusting the task of highlighting some of the challenges emerging from the appraisal to his deputy in the Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Dr. Singh said: “Our concern for inclusiveness in the Eleventh Plan period is reflected in the fact that in addition to the 9% growth target, the Plan lists 26 other monitorable targets highlighting inclusive concerns. These include targets for agricultural growth, poverty reduction, employments generation, school enrolment, reduction in the gender gap, reduction in IMR [Infant Mortality Rate] and MMR [Maternal Mortality Rate], and access to clean drinking water”.

Although all the data required to measure progress in these areas is not available, the appraisal document presented a reasonable assessment of the overall position in these areas, he said.

Dr. Singh noted that despite the severe drought in 2009 on the back of the global financial crisis, the government was hopeful of a farm sector turnaround with a normal monsoon during 2010.

The Hindu

Police in New Jersey make arrests in alleged 1978 slayings

By Jean Shin, CNN

Lee Anthony Evans, left, and Philander Hampton have been charged with murder and arson

New York (CNN) -- Authorities have arrested two suspects in connection with the alleged murders of five teenagers who were reported missing in Newark, New Jersey, more than 30 years ago.

Lee Anthony Evans, 56, and his cousin Philander Hampton, 53, were arrested Monday night and charged with five counts of murder witness testimony put the men under suspicion, the Essex County prosecutor's office said. They were also charged with arson. A third suspect, Maurice Woody-Olds, also a cousin, died in March 2008.

In a news conference Tuesday, acting prosecutor Robert Laurino revealed that 18 months ago, a witness came to authorities and connected the 1978 arson of an abandoned building in Newark with the disappearance of the five boys. That set off an intense investigation aimed at corroborating the witness' account, culminating in Monday's arrests.

The boys, who had become known as the "Clinton Avenue Five," were Randy Johnson, 16, Melvin Pittman,17, Ernest Taylor, 17, Alvin Turner, 16, all of Newark, and Michael McDowell, 16, of East Orange, New Jersey.

Allegedly both Evans and Hampton, with the aid of Woody-Olds, lured the five boys at various times into Evans' pickup truck and held them at gunpoint in the abandoned building on Camden Street before setting it ablaze, officials said.

Authorities believe the alleged killings were in retaliation for the victims' breaking into the home of one of the defendants to steal marijuana. The remains of the five never were found.

"I've been in public life now in Newark for about 15 years," Mayor Cory Booker said at Tuesday's news conference, "and there hasn't been a year gone by when somebody hasn't pulled a flier out with the children's picture on them, looking for them ... [or] where I haven't been in a coffee klatch or in the community where somebody hasn't brought up to me the anguish and the pain of this unsolved murder. We in the city of Newark, though, have not only not forgotten, but we have not given up on the fight against [this] kind of unfinished business or undone justice".

Evans was under suspicion when the investigation first started in 1978, but was released after passing a polygraph test. Laurino said the five boys had done odd jobs for Evans in the past.

Evans and Hampton are being held at Essex County Correctional Facility on $5 million bail, and are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday morning at Veterans Court House in Newark, officials said.

CNN

Kenya Welcomes Tanzania Ivory Ban

Kenya has welcomed the decision by The Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species to prevent neighboring Tanzania from selling part of its ivory stockpile.  The Kenyan government says putting ivory back on the market would stimulate illegal poaching in the region.

Speaking to VOA, Kenya Wildlife Spokesman Paul Udoto said the decision would help to ensure the continuation of one of Africa's most important conservation efforts.

"It is a victory for the African elephant," Udoto said. "It is also an opportunity for Kenya and like-minded partners to engage the other side of the argument".

Kenya was one of more than 20 countries from East and Central Africa that rallied against a proposal from Tanzania and Zambia to remove the African elephant from a list of endangered species.

The proposed change would have allowed the two countries to make a one-time sale of more than 100 tons of ivory; the profits of which they said would be used to fund further conservation projects.

Elephants can move freely across the border between Kenya and Tanzania at three main points where wildlife reserves straddle both countries.  Udoto argues that no decision regarding animal welfare in those regions should be made without consultation between the two nations. 

"They are shared populations," Udoto said. "The elephants have no idea about the passports and the visas to cross over, and it was upon the two countries to have discussed this issue before being presented to Doha.  It is unfortunate that Tanzania moved ahead and took this to Doha without agreeing with us". 

Experts say an insatiable demand for ivory from the Far East means many African countries are facing serious problems in controlling illegal poaching.

Speaking to VOA from the CITES summit in Doha, Save the Elephants Founder Ian Douglas-Hamilton said authorities must act to ensure all options stay closed to ivory buyers.  

"If the price of ivory is propelled upwards due to an increase in demand from the Far East, the poaching will definitely escalate and I think Kenya's really fearful that one-off sales would stimulate the market and increase the demand and that would definitely feed back down to increase the ivory poaching," Douglas-Hamilton said. 

Douglas-Hamilton says the 1989 worldwide ban on ivory trade initially led to an increase in most significant elephant populations, a trend that continued until a few years ago.   

"Now what worries us is that we have seen a sudden escalation in poaching levels," Douglas-Hamilton said. "Everyone acknowledges that throughout the CITES program and that is why were particularly worried that we could see a return to the bad old days".

The Kenyan government has called for Tanzania and other East African states to reconvene to reaffirm the provisions that were made during the last CITES conference in 2007, when a nine-year moratorium on ivory trade was agreed to.

Douglas-Hamilton says the most important aspect of this year's decision is that more time will be made for monitoring systems to be but in place, and that elephants will be granted a rest period so that numbers can increase again.

VOA News

Madonna to move back to Britain for a London summer

Madonna is set to enjoy a London summer as she prepares to move back to Britain, less than a year after relocating to New York

After packing up her London lifestyle following her split with Guy Ritchie, Madge has decided to make a U turn for her new film, reports say.

The singer-turned director is preparing to direct her 1930s tale of Edward VIII, titled W.E, in Britain’s capital.

The film depicts the story of Edward VIII abdicating the throne to marry his forbidden lover, American Wallis Simpson.

Luckily Madonna kept her pad in Marylebone which she’ll move back into for six months during filming.

Her ex Guy is reported to be ecstatic now that he’ll be able to see his sons Rocco and David Banda almost every day once Madge lands in London with them.

Sources say that Guy is hoping the move might become permanent so he can be closer to the kids but he’ll have to wait to see if his ex falls back in love with Britain first.

The Material Girl traded in Britain for The Big Apple when things went sour with Ritchie and was sick of him spending too much time in his Punchbowl boozer and drinking with the lads.

Filming for W.E is set to commence in a couple of months and Ewan McGregor has been cast as the leading man.

Metro.uk

Philippine generals dismiss rumors of coup plot

By MANNY MOGATO | REUTERS

MANILA: Philippine army generals vowed on Monday to uphold democracy and not seize power if presidential elections on May 10 fail to produce a clear winner, dismissing reports of a possible junta as speculation.

Rumors that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was looking to stay in power beyond her term intensified after an aide said last week there was a risk of an army takeover if no election winners were declared when her term ends on June 30.

There have been several failed coup attempts since 1989 and the former head of the Marine Corps is in jail facing possible court martial for his role in an aborted coup in 2006.

"I assure our people that nothing will happen and we will be there to see to it that everything is legal, the constitution will be respected," Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, commander of the Philippine Marines, told reporters at an army base.

"These talks about junta are just rumors and speculations.

The Armed Forces will be one in protecting the people and the vote. All of us will not follow illegal orders," Sabban said.

Other senior army and police generals shared that sentiment, pointing to failed attempts by rogue troops to grab power.

The Philippines is introducing an automated voting system, and there are concerns machine breakdowns and delays in transmitting results could lead to a failed poll.

Arroyo, dogged by accusations of corruption and election fraud, has survived five impeachment motions and three coup attempts since she came to power in 2001 when Joseph Estrada was forced from office.

"We expect the political noise and volatility to rise as the balloting draws nearer, but a failure of election could be the worst case the markets would not want to occur. That would be a terrible nightmare for us," an economist at a local brokerage said.

"Any indications that she may hold on to power could rattle the markets." More than 50 million Filipinos will vote for a new president and nearly 18,000 national and local positions on May 10, with automated voting intended to speed up the process and eliminate potential manipulation and fraud.

However, there has been no large-scale test of the system, and the elections commission has not provided any clear back-up in case of technical and logistics problems.

"There's a possibility the military will take over," presidential spokeswoman Charito Planas told reporters on Friday when asked on possible scenarios in case of a power vacuum after June 30.

"That's possible as military juntas have taken over in several countries, especially in Southeast Asia," she said Arroyo, who is not eligible for another term as president, has promised a smooth transfer of power.

However, appointments of loyal generals in key army positions and a Supreme Court decision to allow her to appoint the next chief justice have raised concerns Arroyo is building a platform to stay in power in case a failed election.

"So long as Arroyo is there, doubts will persist," Renato Reyes, leader of the left-wing Bayan (Nation) movement, said in a statement.

"The president's spokesmen cannot assuage the fears of failed elections and an Arroyo holdover because all the signs point to Arroyo wanting to stay in power beyond 2010".

Arab News